Finance Firm Bloomberg Goes In For $80,000 On Ubuntu Edge Project 98
DW100 writes "Ubuntu has secured a surprise enterprise backer of its $32m Edge smartphone crowd-funding push with corporate powerhouse Bloomberg signing up for the top tier Enterprise 100 package, worth $80,000. Chief technology officer at Bloomberg Shawn Edwards said the firm wanted to give its support to the innovative open source project as it could have real benefits for its IT workforce." Adds reader nk497: "So far the campaign has raised $8.5 million and has two weeks left to run. Individuals can buy the smartphone-cum-PC for $780 at the moment, but Canonical is also offering business bundles of 100 handsets, including a month of support, for $80,000. Bloomberg is the first business to opt for the bundle — but it will get its money back if the project isn't fully funded." Update: 08/08 12:58 GMT by T : One more note: Canonical has dropped the price to $695 for the remainder of the fundraising campaign.
Free publicity (Score:5, Insightful)
Bloomberg is the first business to opt for the bundle — but it will get its money back if the project isn't fully funded.
This is no more than free publicity for Bloomberg then. They're pledging to give 80 thousand USD to a project if it gets fully funded. Said project after getting 7 million in the first 24 or 48 hours, has only managed to go up 1 more million in two weeks. And it needs 24 million more in the next two weeks!
Chances of actually having to give the 80 kUSD... close to 0. Free publicity... a lot!
Re:It's a great deal now. (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason sales have stalled is because not everyone is stupid.
You live in a fantasy.
I don't really understand why sales have stalled as this is going to be 2-3 years ahead of the market.
So they are going to magically come out with a phone 2 or 3 years ahead of the market ... when they aren't even currently in the market and have no experience doing what they claim they are going to do. And they claim they are going to do it far better than the people who produce the hardware itself?
Canonical is some how going to get Samsung (or whoever) to make magical new hardware that they themselves don't sell? Its not like Canonical can fab chips or make AMOLED displays or any of the other related bits.
Only a fool and his followers make and believe statements like these.